JERUSALEM — An Arab attacker armed with a gun and a knife opened fire in a southern Israel bus station Sunday, police said, killing an Israeli soldier and wounding 10 people in one of the boldest attacks yet in a monthlong wave of violence.

The attack came as Israel further tightened security around the country, highlighted by the construction of a barrier separating Jewish and Arab neighborhoods in east Jerusalem. In a bid to halt the fighting, Secretary of State John Kerry said he would meet the Israeli and Palestinian leaders in the coming days.

Israeli border police walk by a wall being built between Palestinian and Jewish neighborhoods in Jerusalem. The Associated Press

Israel has deployed thousands of police, backed up by troops, to maintain order following a spate of attacks, mostly stabbings, by Palestinian assailants. Those measures have so far failed to stop the violence.

In Sunday night’s attack, police said the Arab assailant entered the central bus station in the southern city of Beersheba and began shooting and stabbing people. They said an Israeli soldier was killed, five police were lightly wounded and five civilians were wounded to varying degrees.

Yoram Halevy, a police commander in southern Israel, told reporters that in addition to the knife and gun he entered with, the attacker also snatched a weapon from the soldier he killed.

The attacker, whose identity was not immediately known, was shot and killed.

A foreigner was shot by police during the attack after they apparently mistook him for an assailant. Halevy said security forces responding to the attack entered the bus station from another area and saw a “foreign national,” shooting and wounding him.

Israeli media said the foreigner was an Eritrean national living in Israel.

Security camera footage from the bus station aired on Israeli TV showed what appeared to be a civilian shooting the attacker as soldiers and civilians crouched for cover nearby.

The attack was one of the most serious incidents amid near-daily bouts of violence that has hit Israel and the Palestinian territories over the past month. After the attack, a crowd of Israelis gathered outside the bus station and chanted “death to Arabs.”

The unrest erupted in Jerusalem a month ago over a Jerusalem holy site sacred to Jews and Muslims. It soon spread to Arab neighborhoods of east Jerusalem and then to the West Bank, Gaza and Israel.

Israel has struggled to contain near-daily attacks by Palestinian assailants. Authorities have blocked roads and placed checkpoints at the entrances of Palestinian neighborhoods in east Jerusalem. Other security measures include ID checks and requiring some Palestinian residents to lift their shirts and roll up pant legs as they exit their neighborhoods to prove they are not carrying knives. Soldiers have been deployed in Jerusalem and cities across Israel.

On Sunday, Israeli police erected a barrier to separate the Jewish neighborhood of Armon Hanatziv from the adjacent Palestinian neighborhood of Jabal Mukaber as part of the heightened security. A number of attackers have come from Jabal Mukaber.

Police spokeswoman Luba Samri said the barrier, a row of six concrete slabs about 16 feet high, was meant to protect Armon Hanatziv from rocks and firebombs lobbed from Jabal Mukaber.

But erecting a barrier dividing areas of Jerusalem is a sensitive step, testing Israel’s repeated statements over the years that the city is its undivided, eternal capital.

Israel captured east Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war and later annexed the area in a move that is not recognized internationally. The Palestinians want east Jerusalem as the capital of their hoped-for state.

“This has no political meaning,” said Emmanuel Nahshon, a spokesman for Israel’s foreign ministry. “It’s one more aspect of our security measures.”

Samri, the police spokeswoman, said the barrier would remain “for as long as needed” and that it could be lengthened based on security needs.

On Sunday, the six slabs lined a sidewalk on a road between the Jewish and Arab neighborhoods.

Writing in Hebrew on the barrier said it was a “temporary, mobile police barrier.” It did not prevent pedestrians from leaving or entering.

Palestinians said the roadblocks are collective punishment and ineffective in deterring attackers.

Israeli leaders say the violence is because of Palestinian incitement. But Palestinians say it is the result of years of Israeli occupation, failed peace efforts and lack of hope among their youth.

Much of that hopelessness is found in Arab areas of east Jerusalem. They complain of discrimination, noting that municipal services from education to garbage pickup in their areas are neglected.

Over the past month, nine Israelis have been killed in Palestinian attacks, most of them stabbings. In that time, 41 Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire, including 20 labeled by Israel as attackers, and the rest in clashes with Israeli troops.

The daily attacks have caused a sense of panic across Israel and raised fears that the region is on the cusp of a new round of heavy violence.

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StrangeOneClearcut

“hilltop compound revered by Jews as the Temple Mount and home to the Al-Aqsa Mosque”
This is our Temple Mount and it is the site of our great Temple.It is our holiest spot and we are 5776 years old.
That Mosque is built directly on top of the ruins of our Temple.Islam conquered our land and did this to us.
As far as what this News mentioned those arabs hassle Jews and Tourists who go there.And when I say hassle I mean they throw rocks, firebombs, beat up people, and act like teenage hooligans.
Long Live Israel ! Death to all Terrorists !

KennebunkportIndependent

We have your backs.

LogicalGranny

God help the Palestinians, and God help the USA if that is really true. I hope it isn’t. I’m hopeful Americans will wake up to what we have been supporting all these years.

Bear Down!

G-d help Israel and Jews throughout the world who are now facing another onslaught of anti Israel/semitic feelings like the one above. I guess it’s OK for the Palestinians to kill innocent Jews right granny? They had it coming to them right? Pathetic

LogicalGranny

Please point out what you think is antisemitic in what I wrote. Israel is not Judaism. Israel has for decades depended on allegations of antisemitism to silence critics of Israel. Those of us who decry the actions of Israel but who are not antisemitic (hatred of Jews as a group) will no longer be silenced. It is not OK for anyone to kill innocent Jews. Nor is it OK for Jews to kill innocent Palestinians. 500 children killed in the Israeli attacks on Gaza in 2014.

Bear Down!

Well you’ll be pleased to know that one of the innocent Jews attached at the Beersheba bus station has died from their wounds. When you and the rest of the anti’s start protesting say with what’s going on in Syria then I’ll retract my anti semitic accusation. Until then go # sand!

Perhaps you and Slavick and Schaible and the rest of the anti’s who live in Maine can have a ” We support Palestinian terror” rally this Wednesday in Monument Square?

LogicalGranny

So, you can point to nothing in my comment that is antisemitic. You are exposed for what you are: a supporter of an apartheid state.

Bear Down!

Yawn. I’ll tell you what, show some serious outrage towards the real Middle East human rights violators like Syria, Saudi Arabia, etc and then we’ll talk. See you Wednesday at the rally. You think Peace Action Maine will have a “Jewish lives matter’ rally lol?

LogicalGranny

Again, you can point to nothing in my comments that is antisemitic. Human rights violators? Let’s talk Nakba, Stern Gang, and Irgun. Want me to continue? I know this stuff, and I am only too happy to spread it far and wide. It’s about time Americans knew what we are supporting in the Middle East. Go for it.

Bear Down!

Wowl a full blown anti Israeli! I am impressed. Nah you’re not an anti, lol. Well for you to spread your gospel you’d have to come out from behind your keyboard… Coward

LogicalGranny

Yet you STILL have not been able to point out anything I have written that is anti-semitic. Israel is not Judaism, much as the government of Israel would like people to believe it is so. You’ll have to come out from behind your Hasbara keyboard yourself, won’t you, at some point?

bootjack

The above post by Bear Down is an indicator why there has never been and never will be peace in that part of the world. Many of those people have distant kinship in common and yet they still kill each other. Much is the pity that the U.S. is caught in the middle but the worldwide stakes are too high to not be involved.

LogicalGranny

The U.S. is crazy to be involved. Other countries are not. There is only one reason we are involved, but the eyes of many Americans are opening.

Bear Down!

Oh and maybe if your team (Hamas) didn’t use children and innocents as human shields perhaps those numbers wouldn’t be so high?

LogicalGranny

I am an American. Hamas is not my “team”. Please point out what is antisemitic in my comment, or admit you are wrong.

Braindead Republican

Yeah, the current wave of violence has nothing to do with the systematic land theft and apartheid which Israel has imposed for almost 50 years under threat of deadly violence.
Those settlers who build on Palestinian farmer’s lands, they always steal the best land, and have the Palestinian homes bulldozed, and defend the stolen property with AK-47s, no, they aren’t terrorists. They’re more like Nazis.